Slow Going
Phoenicia merchants are regretfully coming to terms with the slow pace of repairs to the Bridge Street bridge. Closed since it was damaged during the flood of April 2-3, the county owned span was supposed to be back in service by early July but crews are nowhere close to completing the job. “They’re working on the bridge every day” said County Highway & Bridge Commissioner Dave Sheeley on Tuesday, who explained that the removal of the damaged bridge decking turned out to be “unbelievably hard” and “took much longer than expected.” As a result, crews will be unable to make use of prefabricated components and the deck itself will need to be repoured. As for when, exactly, things would be finished, “ I don’t want to give a completion time,” said Sheeley. Word around town seems to be most are assuming the span will remain closed for this summer season and with luck, maybe open by Columbus Day.

Cell Story
Just months after passing a telecommunications law, the Town’s Supervisor has escorted at least one tower building company onto private property in order to erect three 140 foot towers throughout town. Kevin Kellerhouse, the owner of Masterpage Communications Inc., said he could have the towers up within three months once all the necessary permits are granted. Those might prove difficult to get though, as the planning board is required to conduct a SEQRA review of the proposal. The process can be lengthy, especially with a topic as controversial as cellular towers.
On Monday, July 18 Supervisor Robert Cross Jr. brought Kellerhouse to three different sites. At a special meeting later that same day, Kellerhouse said he will now work on striking deals with the landowners, but added that he was still reviewing the data and had not yet determined if these were the best sites. If they are, his best guess was that it would take a couple months to put the deals together and apply to the planning board for permits. Another potential delay is that the planning board has not yet set a fee structure for such permits.
Of the three locations, two are privately owned and the other is town owned property near the Glenbrook Park on Route 42. Cross did not disclose the locations of the other sites, but claims that the town would have good coverage if all three were used. This was based on tests done on the sites by Cross, who said he had temporary mobile towers brought to the sites and then he drove around town checking signal strength.
Kellerhouse, who was used as an advisor by Cross during the creation of the telecommunications law, said landowners would get twenty five percent of the profit that the tower on their property yields.
While Cross, who appears to have a close relationship with Kellerhouse, says he is trying hard to get cellular service into town, many residents were complaining Monday, and appear concerned with his approach. Chuck Perez, a vocal supporter of getting maximum cellular coverage for the entire town, noted at the meeting that Kellerhouse was the only industry representative present so it was impossible to judge his claims about how well the towers would work, which cellular providers would occupy them and which would not.
Big Indian resident Gary Gailles said if anyone knew of other companies interested in building towers they should be contacted.
Robert Stanley, a Republican candidate for town board in this years election, agreed with Perez, noting that it did no good for the town board and audience members “to pretend to be experts,” on the subject.
Another company, Nextel Communications, will have a representative at the next town board meeting slated for August 1st. Nextel is considering building only one tower in town, on the town owned land near Glenbrook Park
Perez said the two companies should be at the same meeting so people can hear from both at the same time.

Reorganized!
The Onteora School Board reorganized itself with split 4-3 votes pitting veteran trustees against its newest members Wednesday night, July 13, naming one-year member David Patterson of West Hurley its new president and Rita Vanacore, newly elected, vice president. Following the swearing in of Vanacore, Cindy O’Connor and Mary Jane Bernholz, who won election as a slate voted in by a 1500 vote majority of Olive voters seeking to protest the implementation of “Large Parcel” legislation and tax levies, the meeting settled into a stream of Olive residents disparaging the former board for its Large Parcel action and urging the new board to “simply let it pass.”
The Large parcel issue would come up for a vote in August should the county Office of Real Property Services issue a determination later this month, as it has in the last two years, that such an entity exists within the Onteora District. The “trigger mechanism” for the large parcel bill, set by statute, is based on “a rule of fives”: the property has to be worth more than $5 million; has to account for 5% of the town’s assessed value; must be five per cent of the school district’s value; and also has to create more than a 5% difference in value of the town’s equalization rate and the apportionment rate. In June, Patterson went on the record to say that he would side with the three new board members to not pass “Large Parcel” a second year should it arrive, claiming it was not the board’s responsibility to be determining tax assessment matters. His comments led to later colorful comments by Woodstock town supervisor Jeremy Wilber about Patterson that were referenced by several speakers at the Reorg meeting Wednesday, along with Wilber comments in a recent Woodstock Times about Olive resident Charlie Blumstein, who has filed a civil suit over the legislation that names the school district, as well as state and county legislatures and municipalities of Shandaken and Woodstock. Departing board president Marino D’Orazio pleaded with Blumstein, who was tape recording parts of the meeting, to drop his lawsuit, given that the district does not have insurance to cover such legal maneuvers, meaning it will cost taxpayers money, and because he said such a suit, if filed by a bonafide attorney, “would likely lead to that lawyer being sanctioned.” Earlier, D’Orazio, along with fellow board veterans Herb Rosenfeld and Lev Flournoy voted against Patterson and Vanacore’s appointments, saying the two lacked the experience, knowledge and objectivity for such positions. They later said they would nevertheless support the new board leadership full-heartedly. In other business, committee appointments, made at the discretion of the board president, were postponed until the board’s August 16 meeting. Similarly, a request to add The Olive Press to the list of official newspapers for the district was tabled until expenses could be looked into. An interim meeting was set for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 2, for the setting of vacancies and hiring of new teachers. According to superintendent Justine Winters, such a meeting was necessitated by the 30-day lead time most teachers union employees need to give notice if leaving one job for another. Low Funds... A decision to siphon money out of Shandaken’s good neighbor fund has the town’s former supervisor saying it could be the beginning of the end for the $601,000 gift that the town has protected for the past eight years. Last week Shandaken Town Supervisor Robert Cross Jr., who is seeking a second term, announced that the town was buying a new Police car and a new ambulance with the fund. But Peter DiModica, a former town Supervisor that is challenging Cross this election to take back the seat, expressed disappointment. He noted that while he was in office the policy of the town was to purchase a new ambulance, retire it after five years and purchase another out of the town’s general fund. 2006 would be the next year for a new ambulance, he said, and he wondered why the ambulance purchase is happening a year earlier than planned. He also said that he didn’t like that Cross was dipping into the interest and principle of the good neighbor fund, a $601,000 account given to the town by the City of New York. The City gave every town within the watershed region a good neighbor payment as part of the historic watershed deal reached in 1997. Shandaken’s fund has been at the full amount since it was received. While most other communities, according to Cross, have already used their funds, Shandaken has chosen to hang on to the money, regularly using interest earned for small projects like new bathrooms at town hall, or the purchase of emergency equipment. Last year $40,000 of interest was used to spruce up the towns parks. But the purchase of the two new vehicles will not only deplete all the current interest, but the principal will be reduced by about $40,000. The numbers remain vague as the town has yet to receive bids on the vehicles. Furthermore, DiModica said that while he was in office about $25,000 was budgeted for the 2006 ambulance purchase. That money should be used for the ambulance purchase, not good neighbor funds he said. Cross argued that the principle would be back up to it’s original amount in about a year and a half, as long as the fund goes unused after this purchase. “I’m just a little upset,” countered DiModica.”If you use that money it’s going to go away.” Cross said that both vehicle purchases were emergencies. As for the police car, which has a blown engine, he said it made no sense to pay to replace the engine. DiModica, who said he wanted to see the fund grow to a million dollars, said it seemed like Cross, who must prepare a 2006 town budget in just a couple of months, was trying to avoid a high tax increase next year by using the fund to buy the vehicles instead. Now, DiModica points out, Cross can exclude the vehicle expense from next years budget. DiModica has criticized Cross over the past year and a half, claiming the Cross administration has raised taxes more in one year than DiModica did in two years combined.

Sliding Away
Portions of two town roads are slipping into the drink and with any luck there are funds available to stop them from getting worse.
On Monday Gary Cappella of the Ulster County Soil and Water Conservation Agency said UCSWC is seeking funds to pay for the stabilization of Muddy Brook road in Phoenicia and Fox Hollow Road in Shandaken.
Although much more work needs to done around town, federal funds are rapidly disappearing, as much of what is available is going to areas down south that suffered from hurricane damage.
Meanwhile the house that last spring fell into Bushnellville Creek along Route 42 during a major flood remains. It appears the town will have to pay to remove it.
I n related news, the town Highway department will not conduct its annual metal pick-up program this year. Each July the department takes away junk free of charge. This year crews are too busy with flood repairs.

Fair Funds?
Last week the town board voted to spend $5000 to promote the upcoming Shandaken Day Country Fair. The Fair, slated for August 27th, is the first of it’s kind in town. The idea came up after last summer’s highly successful Bicentennial celebration because folks didn’t want to wait another 200 to have another one.

County Races
Primaries will be few and far between this political season around Ulster County. To date, the only announced races prior to next November’s election, which will decide the fate of the county legislature, as well as numerous town boards, are a three-way race for the Democratic line for legislature in Highland and a two-way race for the Independence Party line for Family Court judge. Only two incumbent legislators, Teresa Hyatt, D-Ellenville, and Joan Feldmann, D-Saugerties, are not seeking re-election. In the race for Family Court judge, Democratic nominee Anthony McGinty of Rosendale and GOP incumbent Steven Nussbaum of New Paltz are both seeking the Independence Party line when primaries occur in September..

RRA Shifts
After a decade of controversy, the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency’s Board of Directors decided recently to halt its private collection and hauling activities, finally heeding complaints that it was competing unfairly with the public sector. The action came as part of budget deliberations that have been set to conclude on August 17, by which time an estimate of the new change, which effects the trash agency’s revenue stream, should be available. Memorandums available at the recent meeting suggested the change in policy could eliminate up to $160,000 in income, although board members expressed skepticism of the figures provided by longtime RRA head Charlie Shaw.

The Gov’s Plans
Gov. George E. Pataki went to Iowa recently for what associates described as an exploration of whether he should run for president in 2008, reflecting what they called an increased likelihood that he would forgo a bid for a fourth term next year and turn to the national stage. If he ran, Pataki, who supports abortion rights and gun control, would most likely be the most moderate candidate in the Republican field, and would face significant hurdles with a Republican primary electorate that has become increasingly conservative, particularly in states like Iowa. Pataki said in an interview that it was far too early to decide on a presidential race, and that he would make a final decision on seeking re-election around the end of September. His trip coincided with the annual conference of the National Association of Governors. At this point, at least seven governors from both parties are considering runs for the presidency in 2008, reflecting the widespread view in both parties that governors - with their records as chief executives, and without the inconvenience of a detailed legislative voting record - make stronger candidates in presidential races than senators, as demonstrated by Senator John Kerry’s defeat last year.

Maloney Stands
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court appeals court recently overturned a ruling handed down in July 2004 by state Supreme Court Justice Vincent Bradley and has ruled that town of Ulster assessor and Ulster County legislator James Maloney can hold his two positions without conflict of interest.The unanimous ruling by the four-judge Appellate Division stated that Ulster County Democratic Chairman John Parete, the complainant in the case, did not have the legal standing to bring action against Maloney. Furthermore, the judges said, Parete failed to show Maloney’s situation was different enough from that in a 1978 ruling that found the two positions were not incompatible. Maloney, a Republican, said he’s pleased with the ruling and the fact that it was unanimous. Parete said he may appeal the ruling to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. He has pointed out that since towns with elected assessors, such as Shandaken, are not allowed to allow such officials to hold two posts, the law is unfair as currently exists, and does not acknowledge the move away from elected assessors in recent years. Bradley had ruled that Maloney’s two positions were in conflict because there were at least two instances in which the best interest of the county and the town could be in opposition - one involving the large-parcel tax law, the other involving the property assessment of Hudson Valley Mall.

Terror Science
The American Civil Liberties Union has charged that the Bush administration “has sought to impose growing restrictions on the free flow of scientific information, unreasonable barriers on the use of scientific materials and increased monitoring of and restrictions on foreign university students.” The ACLU said the administration with trying to suppress information on such topics as global warming, mercury emissions and emergency contraception. The White House has replied that times are difficult and terrorists can not be given advantageous information. The Senate, meanwhile, has taken steps to ensure that Congress clearly explains future efforts to restrict the public’s access to government documents, passing a new bill that requires that future legislation containing new exemptions to what records are open for public scrutiny under Freedom of Information Act be “stated explicitly within the text of the bill.” Other legislation aimed at reducing bureaucratic delays in meeting FOIA requests and addressing the issue of government secrecy are also being written.
At the same time, it has been revealed that FBI agents monitored Web sites calling for protests against the 2004 political conventions in New York and Boston on behalf of the bureau’s counterterrorism unit, according to FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, and has pegged the ACLU and several environmental organizations in massive new FBI investigations. The American Civil Liberties Union pointed to the documents as evidence that the Bush administration has reacted to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States by blurring the distinction between terrorism and political protest. FBI officials defended the involvement of counterterrorism agents in providing security for the Republican and Democratic conventions as an administrative convenience, and have denied targeting the groups because of their political views.

Implant Rx?
The government has approved a new therapy for the severely depressed who have run out of treatment options: a pacemaker-like implant that sends tiny electric shocks to the brain. The Food and Drug Administration’s clearance opens Cyberonics Inc.’s vagus nerve stimulator, or VNS, as a potential treatment for an estimated 4 million Americans with hard-to-treat depression - despite controversy over whether it’s really been proven to work.The pacemaker-like implant has been sold since 1997 to control intractable epilepsy, a much smaller market, and consists of a generator the size of a pocket watch implanted into the chest. Wires snake up the neck to the vagus nerve, delivering tiny electric shocks through that nerve and into a region of the brain thought to play a role in mood. The chief risk, according to manufacturers: More than half of patients in the depression study experienced at least temporary voice alterations - a hoarseness or raspiness, or voice ‘’breaks’’ - that seem to persist in a significant number. Other complications include difficulty breathing or swallowing.

Army Questions
Governors meeting in Iowa recently voiced concern about repeated National Guard deployments overseas and called for a national dialogue on the role and mission of the National Guard, expressing frustration with the heavy reliance on Guard units in Iraq and Afghanistan and repeated overseas deployments of state units. Those deployments have separated families and caused a hardship for local communities, over half of the 33 governors in attendance said, while raising questions about the size of the military and the future of the National Guard. National Guard soldiers serve under the control of governors, usually for roles like disaster relief in their home states. But they can be summoned to active-duty Army service in times of national need.
Meanwhile, it is looking like major reductions in U.S. troop levels in Iraq are likely next year, although Pentagon officials have said it is too early to predict the specific size and timing. The Pentagon has said that it is eager to pull some of its 135,000 troops out of Iraq in 2006, partly because the counterinsurgency is stretching the Army and Marine Corps perilously thin as casualties mount and partly because officials believe the presence of a large U.S. force is generating tacit support for anti-American violence.
U.S. commanders expect the insurgency to remain at or near its current strength at least until after a scheduled October referendum on a new Iraqi constitution, followed by December elections for a new government.
Senior Pentagon officials, however, have declined to comment directly on a leaked British military assessment that raises the possibility of drastically cutting British troop strength in Iraq by the end of next year as well as sharply cutting the overall number of U.S. and allied troops by the middle of next year to 66,000.

Stone Walkers
Researchers have good news for walkers: Strolling can help obese adults burn more calories per mile than brisk walking and might even lower the risk of arthritis and injuries to the joints than picking up the pace. Colorado doctoral student Ray Browning and his colleagues studied 20 men and women of normal weight and 20 considered obese as they walked set distances at different speeds. They found the obese people burned more calories walking at a slower pace for a longer time than walking at a faster speed. Now, the medical community believes this new info might be just the incentive needed for people turned off by the traditional advice to take at least five brisk walks, 30 minutes at a time, per week. About 60 million Americans age 20 or older are considered obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Their health care costs amount to about $100 billion a year, according to the American Obesity Association.
At the same time, a separate study has found that when people over 60 walked on smooth, rounded cobblestones for just a half-hour a day over four months, they significantly lowered their blood pressure and improved their balance.Behavioral researchers from the Oregon Research Institute investigated the health effects of cobblestones after observing people exercising and walking back and forth over traditional stone paths in China, where traditional medicine teaches that the uneven surface of the stones stimulate “acupoints” on the soles of the feet. The theory is much like acupuncture, suggesting that distant and unrelated areas of the body are linked together at certain points and can be stimulated to improve physical and mental health.
Although cobblestone-walking is rooted in centuries of Chinese tradition, no controlled scientific studies had been done to evaluate its potential benefits and effectiveness until recently.

The Plame Game
Haven’t we pegged it all so far? Watch your mainstream media for this one as it evolves, now… Even if it doesn’t end up with any jail sentences, it will still reveal much about the state of our current politics, as well as the nature of the current administration.

Universal!!!
A push for universal health coverage is being rekindled in some states by soaring health care costs and a lack of political support in Washington for federal changes.
Advocates of a single-payer insurance system - where the government would collect taxes and cover everyone - are counting on frustration with the current system to turn the tide in at least one state by the end of the decade.
Advocates of a single-payer system - where the government would collect taxes and cover everyone, similar to programs in Canada and across Europe - have introduced bills in at least 18 legislatures. Some are symbolic gestures, but heated debate is taking place in California and Vermont. In Ohio, a group of doctors, union officials and religious leaders are gathering signatures to get a single-payer health system placed on a ballot next year.
Not since Oregon in 2002 has a state voted on a single-payer health system. Voters there soundly rejected it, as did Californians in 1994. Both times, the proposals came under fierce assault from the medical, insurance and pharmaceutical industries, which launched a battery of television commercials to oppose the movements.
Nationally, the number of uninsured Americans is 45 million and rising, and 16 million lack enough insurance to cover all their medical bills. Meanwhile, health care costs keep rising… an average of 11.2 percent in 2004, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth.
A single-payer system would be financed through a mix of payroll tax increases and new taxes on personal income. The new taxes would take the place of insurance premiums that many people currently pay for health coverage, and there would be no out-of-pocket expenses. States would use their leverage to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs and other health services. Hospitals and doctors’ offices would be relieved of the hassles and expense of dealing with multiple health insurers.

Megalopoli!
According to the latest theories, the world is no longer about towns, cities, counties, metropolitan areas or even states. Those traditional boundaries may become even more parochial as our nation of 295 million braces for another 125 million people by 2050.
If current development patterns continue, millions more will settle around metropolitan areas, along interstate highways and near major airports. They’ll form giant urban areas linked by common culture, economy, geography and ecology: Already, ten megapolitan areas have more than 10 million residents or will have that many by 2040, extending into 35 states and including parts of every state east of the Mississippi River except Vermont. They incorporate less than a fifth of the land area in the continental USA but house more than two-thirds of the population. Four states are considered completely megapolitan: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Rhode Island.
“This is how America’s really organized, and nobody’s got a statistic to measure it,” reads one report on it all. “The average American intuitively knows this. They’ve taken a lot of business trips in this space. They’ve taken a lot of family trips in this space. They know that’s where their families are moving or where they have friends and relatives.”
“We’re looking at places the way Asians and Europeans do, cutting across borders,” says Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, a New York non-profit research and advocacy group that works on quality-of-life issues in 31 adjacent counties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Yaro and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Mass., are researching ways of formally delineating and measuring these regions. The goal: to promote collaboration on transportation and environmental protection between metropolitan areas and across political boundaries.

Married Men…
Married men earn more than bachelors so long as their wives stay at home doing the housework, according to a report Wednesday from Britain’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) which found that a married man whose wife does not go out to work but is primarily responsible for the cooking and cleaning earns about 3 percent more than comparably employed single men. Surprisingly, that wage premium disappears if wives go out to work themselves or don’t do most of the housework. Analysis suggests there could be two explanations for the results: A marriage might allow a husband and wife to focus their activities on tasks to which they are most suited. Traditionally, this would result in the man concentrating on paid work enabling him to increase productivity and in consequence his wages. Another explanation could be that marriage may increase the amount of time a man has to hone work-related skills which could trigger higher wages.